Regret
by Sandstorm Inkwell
Summary: Oneshot. Regret can come in many forms. It may also come at different times. When the Wasteland Hero fails to protect someone, something finally snaps and he finds himself flooded with regret.


"Why is this taking so long?"

My teeth were grinding as the newly sixteen year old behind complained for what felt like the hundredth time that the trip was taking too long. _He can't help it, _chided my conscious. True, he probably didn't no better but it was still getting on my nerves.

Sticky was his name and I had met him after gaining entrance to Little Lamplight. Little Lamplight was inside the old Lamplight Caverns and was home to kids and only kids. Adults (mungos as they called them) weren't allowed because they were too strict. That was the story that was spread to the kids. Mayor McCreedy had told me that it was because they weren't able to sustain a large population, especially one with adults who ate a lot.

I had gained entrance to the town by showing my inner kid, something the self-proclaimed 'Mayor for Life' liked. Once through the gate, I saw a group of kids gathered around a teenage boy with a party hat on his head. They were apologizing for missing his birthday party but he seem frustrated. Talking to him, I learned about his frustration. He had just turned sixteen and, in Little Lamplight, sixteen was the age when they kicked you out and sent you on your way to Big Town, situated somewhere in the wastes.

Seeing that I was likely to not return from a Vault full of Super Mutants (McCreedy described them as giant monsters that 'look like us but are all wrong') I decided to escort the kid. I mean, I had my guns, ammo, and my power armor. What better person was there to escort the kid? So, the two of us left the town of kids and exited the caverns.

Of course, that was when it began. He wouldn't shut up! From whistling tunelessly to random stories to complaining about the time it was taking, he just kept talking! He was also the worst person to be with in a fight. I almost shot him once cause the idiot ran in front of me, screaming about the two Super Mutants we had run into. I almost turned his head inside out! I mean, jesus, how stupid can you be?

Well, I relieved the corpses of a Hunting Rifle and some ammo. Thinking that maybe he could be at least **some **help, I handed the rifle and ammo to the kid. With a gun in his hands, he seemed to change. Not in his demeanor but in how he fought. He didn't scream and run in circles like he did with the Mutants. No, he actually stood and fought. His aim wasn't all that good but it was still good enough to get a few hits on the scattered radscorpions and mole rats we ran into. Of course, I ended up finishing them off with a burst from my Chinese Assault Rifle.

Now, we were close to Big Town. Looking at my map, I saw that it was past a broken bridge and over a small hill. We got to the mouth of the bridge when a bullet pinged off of my pauldron, it ricocheting away from me.

"Raiders!" Sticky shouted as he ducked behind the concrete barrier. Looking to where the shot came from, I saw the bombed out house. My heads-up display tagged multiple hostiles in that direction and one look at them confirmed that they were Raiders. A whole nest of Raiders.

Kneeling behind the barrier, I raised my rifle and fired a prolonged burst at the Raider who tried to shaprshoot me from the second story. He ducked into cover as the rounds tore by him, though I was certain that one of the rounds tore through a leg. His lack of reaction was probably from the multitude of chems he had to be on.

Barking. Dog. Charging at us from the house. A prolonged burst and the mutt lay bleeding in the dirt. Sticky had now joined the fray, firing off potshots at the house, hoping to help. I just rolled his eyes at his inexperience. Here I was, barely a weeks and a half (maybe) out of a Vault and I was fighting better than a guy who grew up in this hellhole.

A round smacked against the _back _of our cover. Looking around, I saw the Raider standing at the top of the bridge, hunting rifle aimed down at us. I found it slightly comforting that he was a horrible shot, otherwise we would've been screwed.

Aiming over Sticky's head, knocking off the kid's party hat, I fired at the Raider. Rounds tore through his cobbled together armor like it was simply paper and, soon, the Raider fell back out of sight. With that threat taken care of, I turned back to the house-

to see that I was almost face to face with a Flamer.

"Burn!" shouted the Raider, as he let out a burst of flames at Sticky and me. I was protected... Sticky was not. He began to scream as the napalm ate away at his skin. His rifle, which he had been trying to load, was dropped to the ground as the man stood up and ran, trying to extinguish the flames. All that did was fan them further. Within seconds, the kid dropped to the asphalt, dead. The flames still stuck to his body, slowly burning it away.

That was when I felt it. I felt something in my head just... snap. I was so close to getting this kid to his new home. It was just over the damn hill! But no! I had to walk this poor kid into a goddamn **nest of RAIDERS! **I protected this kid from Super Mutants for fucks sake!

My mind was gone, red tinting my eyes as I turned to the laughing Raider. I felt myself scream in rage as I unloaded the rest of my magazine into the bastard. When the weapon clicked dry, I leaped over the barricade, drew my knife and charge at the house. I would make them pay! For killing Sticky, for terrorizing the wastes, for making this trek more dangerous than it already was! They would all die!

When I reached the house, a Raider chick was stepping out of cover to fire at me. Her eyes widened when she saw how close I was. She depressed the trigger but the armor did good in stopping the rounds from the poorly maintained gun. Her skull, on the other hand, did nothing to stop my knife. I punched the blade through her eye, the tip erupting out the back of her head. Raising my right leg, I kicked the corpse off my knife before charging out back toward the ramp that lead up.

Bullets slammed into my armor as the man above tried to stop me. While I felt some rounds go through, they didn't dig enough to stop my rage. Charging up the ramp (it almost buckling under my weight) I ran straight at the backpedaling Raider. His foot slipped, his eyes widened, his mouth opened to speak. I didn't let him. Nothing he could say would've let him live. I rammed into him full force, my knife driving into his gut. The hit sent us both breaking through a section of wall that hadn't collapsed and into the air.

The fall felt like it lasted for an eternity. In reality, it was only a couple seconds before we hit the ground. With his body below man, he was smashed to a pulp by the weight of my armor alone. Organs exploded outward and blood caked the front of my armor. The only thing I could hear was my heavy breathing as I looked around for more Raiders to kill.

Nothing. All around me was nothing but corpses. Slowly, I stood to my feet. Wiping my knife on a relatively piece of the dead Raider's garments, I sheathed it before walking back to my rifle. Picking up my rifle, I replaced the magazine before walking over to the charred corpse that had once been Sticky. The fires had finally gone out, since nothing was left to burn, and all that was left was a blackened corpse.

"_Red, my girlfriend, is a doc in Big Town. She's bound to have enough caps to pay you."_

That was what he told me before we left the caverns.

"_...my girlfriend..."_

"Fuck!" I shouted, stomping my foot against the asphalt. First I had killed Charon by leading him into a Mutie bunker not thirty minutes after gaining his "contract" and now I had killed this kid by leading him into a nest of Raiders! Not only that but he had a lover out here in this hellhole. He had something most people could only dream of having in the wastes. Now that was over, because I couldn't protect him from fucking Raiders! What kind of hero was I? Able to escape the Enclave yet unable to save someone from drugged-up psychos!

Sighing, I slung my rifle (now not rethinking the sling idea) over my shoulder next to my modified pack. Crouching down, I slid my hands underneath the corpse and lifted him up. _It was just over the fucking hill! _With him in my arms, I walked around the barrier and toward the hill. If something attacked me now, I'd be defenseless but I didn't care. All I cared about was getting Sticky's corpse to Big Town so that he could be properly buried by his friends and lover. I didn't want to see them cry but I knew it would be the right thing to do.

"I'm so sorry," I whispered to the corpse as I walked across the riverbed and started up the bank, "I should've been better. I-"

I paused, a lump forming in my throat as a tear rolled down my cheek. I swallowed the lump,

"Once upon a time, there was a dog named Super Dupe Dave..."


End file.
